I just watched the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version of Santa Claus Conquers the Martians and boy... That was kind of disappointing.

When MST 3K was on Comedy Central, it totally blew my mind on a regular basis. I have fond memories of watching their Christmas special (Santa Claus Conquers the Martians) several times and always enjoying it.

Maybe it's because I was distracted a little while the movie was on... but I just wasn't that into it. For example, the sketch with Dr. Forrester and TV's Frank about the machine that turns good presents into bad presents just seemed badly paced and it was way too obvious that they were flipping the boxes over to reveal the dud gifts.

And the jokes during the movie weren't as awesome as my nostalgia-tainted memories made me think they were.

I didn't really start getting into it until they did the "Patrick Swayze Christmas" musical number. Crow T. Robot had written the first Christmas song ever to be based on Roadhouse. Which is just a great concept.

The last half of the movie features better material by Joel and the 'bots... but man is it slow going getting to that point.

I guess you can never go home again.

But I'm stubborn. I'm going to give the MST 3K version of Godzilla vs. Megalon a try to see if the magic is still there. I think that's the one where Godzilla teams up with an Ultraman-wannabe flying robot.

Saw Little Shop of Horrors for the first time in a looong time. The musical. Still great. Steve Martin's bit remains as perfect as I remember it. The special effects on Audrey II hold up amazingly well, they really did a hell of a job on the various incarnations of that plant.

MST3K is great and holds up fine every time I've ever watched one, though some are better than others. Was watching one just the other day in fact. The in-between live-action bits were always stupid. Endearingly stupid, but it would never even occur to me to expect one of them to be laugh-out-loud funny.

K

I do laugh out loud at some of the MST3K stuff, but I get what you're saying.

Caught a couple flicks this weekend:

The Incredibles: As a not-too-hot-on-the-CGI sort of moviegoer, this is admittedly the first instance of an entirely computer-animated film that I found to be an undeniable visual delight. The stylizations, animations, and general aesthetic wit of everything, together with its pitch-perfect technological execution onscreen, was pretty damn enjoyable. The characters were less annoying than I'd have expected, and the story was engaging and really well-told, and narrative aspects that lesser writers and artists would've dropped the ball on big-time were handled with some nuance and power here. That said, I found the overarching themes bland and uninteresting. Too wholesome for my personal tastes.

Black Book: I was a little suprised I didn't like this one better. It was okay. I'm not sure I could explain what I object to about it. It felt sort of silly to me, which is an odd thing to say about a movie of this nature, though less odd when you consider its director. Who I like a lot, but who has a penchant for over-the-top-ness. I was hoping that'd work in his favor here, creating a kind of antithesis to what one would normally expect from a WW2/Nazi Germany themed movie and adding a surreal and probably oblivious twist of pure Hollywood trash (s'how it seemed from the trailer) -- but there was just nothing about the movie that made much of an impression on me. I found my attention drifting off frequently as I watched, and a bit glad when it was (finally) over. In fairness, I'd had a few drinks before seeing it, and it's probably a movie better taken in 100% sober, so that could've skewed the experience slightly.

K

I've been watching A Touch of Zen, and I can see why people name drop it as an important martial arts/wu xia-type film. Sure, there are some stunts where it looks like the combatants are bouncing off trampolines... but it's surprisingly well-crafted considering that it dates back to the late Sixties.

I was expecting totally over the top sound effects and people's arms falling off when they get grazed by somebody's sword. Color me pleasantly surprised that the most implausible thing about the movie is that people are able to hide three-foot long swords inside their belts.

It's a surprisingly cool adventure story with badass shaolin monks, beautiful women who can fight and some sort of rebellion that the bookish protagonist finds himself caught up in after falling for a young lady who is in trouble.

Highly recommended.

The MST 3K episode Godzilla vs. Megalon was all I could hope for and more. The flying robot Jet Jaguar teams up with Godzilla against two monsters from the underwater kingdom Seatopia. Great heckling by Joel and the 'bots, great skits, great everything.

My favorite bit was a sketch where Crow and Tom are supposed to be Orville and Gary Redenbacher. Orville (Crow) is an evil and eccentric tyrant who rules his popcorn empire with an iron fist and Gary (Tom) gets himself in trouble by suggesting that they hire an image consultant and do something about their nerdy clothes and haircuts. It starts out as a commercial for new flavored popcorn and then spirals downward as Orville keeps threatening to disown Gary like he did his parents. I can't really explain why I liked it, but I had to watch it a few more times so I could laugh out loud some more.

The play-by-play ring commentary during the last monster fight was quite satisfying.

Highly recommended.

Yeah, The Incredibles was pretty astonishing, visually. I saw it on the big screen, and am glad I made the effort. I agree with most of your comments here. I found the theme -- encapsulated by the dialogue "Everyone is special", "Which is another way of saying nobody is." -- fairly trite. That may have been part of the reason why it didn't hold up very well to a second (small screen) viewing. I found myself looking forward to a few scenes and set pieces, but otherwise fairly bored.

But writer/director Brad Bird, formerly associated with The Simpsons, obviously has some talent.

Yet for some reason, I have absolutely no urge to check out Ratatouille.

Yeah; I might end up checking it out, but I know exactly what you mean. I can't tell you how many good things I've heard about the movie but I just glaze right over when anyone starts talking about it.

K

While I was at my sister's for Thanksgiving, we somehow ended up having to watch Ratatouille.

There are some funny parts, and Patton Oswalt is great as the voice of the rat who can cook. It's a cute movie, but not entertaining enough to justify sitting through the parts that kind of drag.

And there may actually be too much going on in the plot. The story goes beyond a point where it could have just stopped and gives you two more endings. A subplot about an evil food critic gets resolved more thoroughly than it really needed to be and then you get the real happy ending, which is more realistic and understated than the one the story seemed to be working toward. And which you saw already, like half an hour before.

And then there are the multiple scenes of rats swarming across a restaurant kitchen that may be too much for some viewers who don't think they're funny.

Another problem is that the movie can't seem to decide if the smart rat is the only fantasy element in an otherwise fairly realistic story, or if they want to go for more of a Disney flavor.

Additionally, all the talk about loving food and cooking may make you feel like you're watching an episode of Top Chef... so there's that to consider.

"Another problem is that the movie can't seem to decide if the smart rat is the only fantasy element in an otherwise fairly realistic story, or if they want to go for more of a Disney flavor."

Yeah, I like a lot of old Disney movies with talking animals and such like, but otherwise I'm over that kind of animation, for the most part.

I have a soft spot for superheroes, though. Talking superheroes.

The wife rented the Nannie Diaries last weekend. It was decent. I like pez. And toast.